Myspace Rolls Out Sandbox For Developers

Myspace, the largest social networking site said Wednesday it will let programs pre-register for its developer platform program which is set to be launched next week.

Developers who are interested in developing games, media-sharing features or any other programs will be able to sign up on the site to receive information about the MySpace Developer Platform. The program was first announced in October after its main rival, Facebook opened up its platform to developers like music-sharing startup iLike.com, photo-sharing service Slide Inc. among other companies.

The NewsCorp owned website will launch the program next Tuesday in a kick-off event and workshop at its new San Francisco office. As of today, developers will have the tools required to create and test programs, but won't be able to integrate them right away. MySpace has yet to confirm a start date for that.

Myspace called the program a sandbox for developers and expects it to innovate the way friends connect and communicate.

The upcoming program opens the site to any coder by providing open APIs and allows the developers to make money from their application.

The company also announced Amit Kapur, 26, is the new Chief Operating Officer and will be responsible for the growth of the MySpace Developer Platform. He was previously in charge of business development.

A key interest we have as we launch this platform is to protect the user experience against things like application spam and security holes, so that'll be a major part of our launch. We're extremely committed

to safety and security, he said.

Following the controversy Facebook had with Scrabulous, its online version of the word game Scrabble and one of it's most popular applications, Myspace is taking extra precautions to avoid applications that are controversial.